“Mind wandering poses an unresolved puzzle for cognitive neuroscience: It is associated with poor performance in various cognitive domains, yet humans spend 30–50% of their waking time mind wandering.”
So claim the authors of a recent study published in The Journal of Neuroscience, citing previous literature on this topic.
Lead author Péter Simor, PhD, and his colleagues from Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary, however, were keen on challenging assumptions that daydreaming negatively affects performance.
Daydreaming is ‘wakeful rest’
“The idea to study the potentially beneficial influence of mind wandering on information processing occurred to us during the COVID pandemic, when we had plenty of time to mind wander,” Simor told Medical News Today on a lighthearted note.
